Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I strongly support the idea of "CCP" developing far more "ambulation". To ignore this aspect of the game universe feels cheap and somewhat cowardly. Right now CCP offers a somewhat "tunnelvisioned" gaming experience that mostly appeals, well let's say it as it is, to an element in the gaming community that might be lacking in RL social mobility, human empathy or mental flexibility. Eve Online gamers are generally highly intelligent, but the scene can be summarized as claustrophic, maybe even a luddite community.

I am all for opening up the design of the game to radically expand gaming experiences into ones that do not necessarily extend to current trend of spreadsheet OCD aspergerism (where I wouldn't dare insult people with OCD or aspergers syndrome), respectively the sickening "my peener is bigger than yours" (I have more skillpoints, i have more pew camp gank troll friends, I am more of a ruthless bastard, I have more money, I can sink 80 hours a week in to Eve Online, etc. etc.).

I think this is bad, and such game design focus, while somewhat understandable if you know people and designers from Nordic regions, makes Eve Online vulnerable.

My insistent recommendation is to proactively look at what kind of game experience venues can be added to the franchise that would make the game more appealing to "normal" people, as opposed to the current crop of "elitists". Sometimes I am a little concerned that CCP has become a little lacking in ambition. They have a safe franchise, their regular crew of geekcore designers. Maybe CCP is suffering a little from compartmentalization?

We were supposed to slowly expand in a more immersive experience. Instead we got Dust514. I will never play Dust514. I don't get why anyone would want to, but to each his (or her, the other 1.7% of Eve players) preference.

I'd love an exploration/problem solving game in free fall, adjunct to Eve Online. A few years back there was a game called DESCENT which was probably one of the most original ones since ever. I can easily imagine games such as descent linked in the Eve Online universe - pilots drop exploratory teams in to junk zones, and those explore massive swarming bulkheads and tunnel and cave complexes. Or - if you insist - they pew it out with other teams. Much more interesting than flatlander Dust if you ask me.

But even then, I can imagine a lot of potential for gaming experiences inside stations. Let's start with four bars with a station observation view. Put a cartography room next to the bar, where characters can waddle their avatars through a giant stellar map in 3D holographics.

Update
There is a game called Dead Space. In the game is a vessel called the USG Ishimura. The vessel is estimated to be bigger than a mile. Inside this absolutely gargantuan vessel is a warren of endless sprawling tunnels and complexes and industrial facilities. It's a city. In fact the ishimura has its own public transportation in the shape of an actual train going in circles throughout the vessel.

http://media.aintitcool.com/media/legacy/images2008/space_big.jpg

The Ishimura is just a slight bit bigger than my Iteron. And my Iteron is a diminutive speck when undocked from an average station. In another comparison, the hulking massive structure in ALIEN, the Nostromo landing vessel, is about 250 meters. People can wander in the insides of the Nostromo looking for non-indigenous life for days..... Nonetheless the Nostromo would be a pawlty little thing compared even to the average cruiser. If you like experimenting with this head out to Google, download a free copy of Sketchup and download some Eve Online vessels and a few iconic movie space ships. Then figure out how to import these models in Google Earth. Then look up your neighborhood in Real Life, and import a few models for comparison. I did that a few years ago and dropped a few vessels in a nearby park. It's an eye opener.

If CCP would ever grow the balls to explore ambulation a little, they should start with Trams. Run a Tram through a station. That's four trams. It should only be one "metro" station, the one next to the club, the station inside observation window, the station outside observation window, the cartography section and the nightclub. One for each major species clearly, to reflect cultural context. It should be a start, and a long overdue promise of more to come.

As it stands I have no interest in CQ. Moving the dock button won't get me to use it either.
But I like the OP's ideas and would use it if they were taken up. I like the first person aspect also, but agree both should be implemented.

+1

They will continue to turn away players after the first few months.
Why did Blizzard make so much money? They gave the users what they wanted.

How about this

CCP creates a new "free to play" model. Yes it would involve WiS eventually, but that's long term considering how gruesomely slow and overly cautious CCP has proven in developing this new game niche.

The new crowd-puller involves an account where players start out dead cheap characters on the "oustside", effectively NPC's. They are used by CCP as cannon fodder and play the part of existing pirate factions. These players would get allotted some pirates and be able to attack players in some random system. Wickedness would be restricted to one system only - no means to get out of the system, and the fun is for a single day only. To facilitate this, CCP creates a dozen or so new "amateur league" vessels, named "the troll", "the weasel", etc. Free account players would be bit players, "orcs" to be used as shoot'um up fodder.

Walking stations should happen, if you want to attract more people in the Eve environment, create a free to play game that would allow casual players to exist in stations, but not as an Eve player, or a DUST 514 player, but just a person that lives in a station, or on a planet maybe int he future. Think Second Life, but in Eve. When CCP first talked about Walking in stations, we were told that there would be retail spaces and such that could be rented and shops like bars, gambling facilities etc... These could be created by these social players. I think there are a lot of possibilities that are being ignored or neglected.

OPEN THE DOOR

I want to deal boosters in a seedy shady smokey rusty middle of nowhere dark dank minmatar station bar.

Excellent ideas by the OP.
There are times I sit and spin spaceships waiting on something/someone for an op, etc, and it would be a welcome wait to have even half of what he and the others have been proposing in this thread. Start small and go from there.
+1

Still waiting on CCP to ignore the idiot tears and just improve eve by finishing WIS.

I think CCP needs to extract head from ass and consider this as an interesting idea. I know following the debacle that was Incarna that they're now terrified of developing anything for this, but they really need to learn to tell the players to suck it up. They''re so good at it, after all, when we lose ships to bugs or want the Jukebox back.